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From September 11-13, 2008, the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California was buzzing with more than 2,000 international high school students on a mission to change the world. The students, called 'peacejammers', were there taking part in the 2008 PeaceJam Global Call to Action Conference. The event broght the student's together with six leading Nobel Peace Laureates to highlight a project being called one of the most ambitious youth movements in history – the Global Call to Action. This 10 year campaign puts Laureates and youth side by side in a global movement to address some of the toughest issues facing our world- from securing the rights of women and children to restoring the environment.
Over the next decade the students and Laureates will work together to inspire and mobilize the global community to initiate one billion 'acts of peace'. For the students' part they have been busy organizing 'Global Call to Action Projects' that they will carry out in their local communities. Youth attending the 3-day conference in Los Angeles got the chance to present their Global Call to Action Projects directly to the Nobel Laureates. Laureates attending the event included four Nobel Women's Initiative Laureates- Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jody Williams, Betty Williams and Shirin Ebadi, as well as the esteemed Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina.
While in Los Angeles for the youth event, Iranian Laureate Shirin Ebadi used the opportunity to speak out against US military action in Iran. She encouraged young people to pay close attention to world affairs because international events impact their lives much more than celebrity gossip and Hollywood films. She warned that US military action against Iran would damage the human rights movement inside Iran "because the government will expand its powers and limit freedoms using the excuse of national security."
Read Nobel Laureate from Iran urges against military action, Los Angeles Times, 14 September 2008.
MTV was on site to capture footage of the historic event. Watch the video here!
Read an article about the event, written by Dr. Maya Angelou, on the Oprah and Friends website.
What is PeaceJam?
PeaceJam is an international education program that inspires young peacemakers to transform their world by connecting them with leading Nobel Peace Laureates who work personally with the youth to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom they embody. The program was founded by Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff of Colorado to address the "overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness" plaguing the more than 2 billion teenagers alive today. In 2008, Engle and Suvanjieff were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work.
How Can You Get Involved?
To find out how you can get involved in the Global Call to Action campaign visit PeaceJam's website at www.peacejam.org.
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